(Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
Every year, our nation celebrates the independence holiday with grand achievements and new triumphs. Wide-ranging innovative and beautification works are carried out to mark the greatest and dearest holiday with due honor and esteem. Resplendent gifts are prepared to this date to contribute to the prosperity of the country and wellbeing of the people.

This year, too, the construction of new industrial enterprises, education and healthcare institutions, facilities of cultural and sports designation, residential houses, roads and bridges has been completed on the eve of the great day. In line with a good tradition, these facilities are commissioned on the eve of the remarkable date – Independence Day.

On August 29, President Islam Karimov toured around the capital Tashkent to review the course of innovative endeavors.

Tashkent is the chief city of our country, a metropolis that has embodied all its splendor and charm. Wide-ranging and consistent creative works under the leadership of the head of our state have been in progress in town. Preserving its historical distinctiveness, the capital city has been renewing, acquiring a growingly modern appearance, and advancing on the basis of the thoroughly elaborated urban planning scheme.

Quite telling are the buildings, roads and flyovers as well as bridges constructed in Tashkent on the basis of traditions of national and contemporary architecture art.

The President of our country reviewed the new modern bridge at the crossroads of Abdulla Kadiri and Labzak streets in Shaykhantahur District. The transport junction built by the 13th Kuprikqurilish Trust under the Uzbekistan Temir Yullari State Stock Railway Company opens up extensive convenience for vehicles. The facility is 642 meters long and 19 meters wide.

Discussing the ingenious endeavors, the leader of our country noted that they have been undertaken with great skill and on the basis of profound knowledge and high technologies.

The traffic load at the crossroads of Abdulla Kadiri and Labzak streets used to bring about inconveniences both for cars and pedestrians. And now, thanks to this new bridge, the problem has been not only eliminated, but also a possibility has been born to provide for an uninterrupted traffic and road safety.

Bridges are significant in transforming the looks of cities. It is important also in terms of environmental security. Exhausts are known to pollute the environment; hence it is essential to shun traffic jams. It is exactly these kinds of issues that motorway junctions and flyovers are designed to solve.

Owing to these innovative efforts, the roads adjacent to Abdulla Kadiri Street have been broadened, and a modern shopping mall has been erected on the place of the former Dynamo Sports Store. Green zones have been widened along the banks of the Anhor Canal, on the streets and squares and alleys nearby.

Getting familiar with the construction and decoration works here, the head of our state recommended that the engineering and communication infrastructure be further refined in order to provide for an uninterrupted traffic around the year, expand the areas revamped on the basis of contemporary landscape design.

Islam Karimov traveled to the junction of Abdulla Kadiri and Sebzar streets and enquired into the project of an overpass to be built here.

The trees planted on this square in the 1970s higgledy-piggledy and without consideration of natural factors create myriads of inconveniences for people. The area between the roads is not used, and because of its excessive width, the buildings are close to the road.

The new flyover to be erected here is designed to trim down tension and create considerable comfort for traffic and locals.

Vehicles in our country, including the capital city, have been growing in number. This is suggestive of the rising living standards of people. The goal sought by the extensive reforms, after all, is to bolster the quality of life of the population.

The head of our state thus underscored the necessity to broaden Abdulla Kadiri Street and turn it into an eight-lane road, to lay green zones here for the residents of adjacent apartment blocks to spend their leisure time, and build fountains to create a microclimate here.

When constructing buildings, bridges, roads and other facilities, it is imperative to take into account not only the current day, but also the interests of the posterity, Islam Karimov said.

The President of Uzbekistan reviewed also the new road built in Almazar and Shaykhantahur districts.

Roads are arteries of economy and an important means of communication. Life is comfortable where roads are advanced. That can be seen in the example of the steady development of the country's transportation system, the growth of our economy and the wellbeing of people.

On the initiative of the head of our state, ring roads are currently built in all major cities of the country, while the existing ones are widened and conveniences for traffic created.

Construction of another bypass road has come to be an extension of these efforts. This 5.1 kilometers long sector of the road commences from Beruni Street in the Almazar District and continues through to Hurshid Street in the Shaykhantahur District. It links streets like Farobi, Karasarai, Sagban, Sebzar and Labzak.

In old times, homes and markets throughout Tashkent, especially in the old city, used to be built without a plan. That used to make traffic rather thorny, lead to the loss of time, increase in fuel consumption and environmental pollution.

Built on the idea and project of the head of our state, the new four-lane road in each direction eliminates those inconveniences and eases the traffic.

Islam Karimov expressed high appraisal of the endeavors of road-builders and construction workers.

"Residents of the old city used to live in such intricate circumstances," President Islam Karimov pointed out. "Following a thorough examination of issues, an urban planning scheme of the old city has been worked out. In accordance with this plan, new roads, bridges, modern housing and communications will be built. This new road, along with the creation of comfort for the population, will enhance the prospects of transformation of the old city into a modern site that stirs universal admiration."
In the meanwhile, all the communications and facilities of engineering infrastructure were built simultaneously with the road. State-of-the-art housing and social facilities are to be constructed along the road. Residential houses will be three- and five-storied. Fountains and a green zone are to emerge there, as well.

Tremendous significance is attached under the leadership of President Islam Karimov to fostering the growing generation as physically healthy, morally mature individuals. Along with other types of sports, great consideration is paid also to the development of chess, as a result of which the international glory of the Uzbek school of chess has been on the rise.

Today, our chess players are regular in earning prizes in world and continental championships, the World Chess Olympiad, Asian Games, and demonstrate to the entire globe that our young generation is not inferior to anyone in anything. The whole world knows today the 17th world chess champion Rustam Kasimjanov, and Nafisa Muminova, the first Uzbek girl – FIDE international grandmaster. In June this year, at the World Championship among schoolchildren in rapid and blitz-chess in Greece's Kavala, our juvenile chess players Islombek and Javohir Sindorovs won two medals each and proved the intellectual potential of Uzbekistan's youths to the entire planet. At the Asian Championship among boys and girls under 12 that took place in Tashkent, our young chess players earned 6 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals. World champions Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Islombek Sindorov, the talented chess players Abdulbosit Sharifjonov, Okjol Rahmatullaev, Nodirbek Yakubbaev, Maftuna Bobomurodova were awarded the title of champions of the continent.

In order to increase the number of such young talents, consistently popularize chess in our country, nurture gifted athletes capable of upholding the honor of the native Uzbekistan at the world sport arenas, National Specialized Children's and Youths' Chess School has opened in Tashkent.

Chess is the most intellect-intensive type of sports that requires immense willpower and tenacity. At the new chess school, children and teenagers from 6 to 16 can go in for the beloved game and uplift their skills in their time free from studies. The new school contains learning and training rooms, a gym, a cafeteria and other facilities. Electronic chess boards installed in rooms meet all international standards. The building also has a special room for schoolchildren to spend their leisure time.

The school boasts special chess halls where up to a hundred people can play the game simultaneously.

Admission to the school is projected as a competition. Classes are to be led by experienced coaches.

In the room outfitted with personal computers with internet access, schoolchildren can play with their fellows abroad in online mode and hence boost their expertise.

The President of our country conveyed essential recommendations to create an environment at this school that would be even more conducive for bolstering the mastery of schoolchildren trained here. Islam Karimov stressed the necessity of construction of a separate building adjacent to the school that would be designated as an arena for major international tournaments and built in the traditions of national architecture art.

The new school outfitted with cutting-edge sporting equipment, offering extensive opportunities for the organization of classes with the application of newest technologies will without any doubt allow us to lift up the intellectual abilities of young chess players and foster masters of sports capable of upholding the honor of our Motherland on the international field.

Later, the head of our state reviewed the new building of the Academy of Government under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In the process of democratization of public administration and formation of a potent civil society, a special emphasis is placed in our country on training and raising the proficiency of modern cadres in this field. The Academy of Government under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan is a pivotal education institution. The establishment trains qualified specialists capable of carrying out reforms on the democratization of government and management, on the promotion of institutions of civil society and the liberalization of the system of economic management.

The learning process in the Academy goes with an account of objectives concerning the democratic renewal and modernization of the country, international education standards, contemporary forms and methods of education, as well as on the basis of curricula and programs elaborated in accordance with state education standards, with the application of advanced pedagogical, information-communication and innovation technologies. The Academy has a spirituality and enlightenment center and an information-resource center outfitted with cutting-edge equipment, information-communication and telecommunications means and technologies, learning, scientific and methodological literature on governance and social administration.

Thanks to the environment created in the information-resource center, the latter can have the faculty and students of the Academy as well as all users to work by their own. The stock of the center boasts corresponding literature, including periodicals and their electronic versions, in Uzbek, Russian and English. The reading hall of the center is covered by a wi-fi system. Here one can have direct access to electronic resources of libraries abroad.

On the initiative of the President of our country, the building of the Academy of Government has been reconstructed to the end in line with state-of-the-art architectural and technological requirements.

Reviewing the building, conference halls of the Academy, its information-resource center, the head of our nation offered his recommendations to perfect the scientific, practical and organizational conditions in the Academy.

"This Academy is not merely a learning place, but it is also an education institution that gives the knowledge of life," President Islam Karimov noted. "Every person graduating from it should deserve public administration. For this to be achieved, international cooperation should be built up, the system of public administration in countries advanced in this field should be studied, and expertise exchange ought to be shored up."
The entire complex of buildings contains three conference halls and a great exposition hall, 10 halls for roundtable discussions and other events, and a sports ground. They are equipped with all the necessary hardware and machinery.

The education block and the student house of the Academy are outfitted with comfortable furniture, learning accessories and personal computers. There is access to the internet.

At the faculties of government and public administration as well as retraining government cadres of the Academy, specialists are trained and retrained on the basis of two-year curricula in two majors – government and public (social) administration. Admissions to the Academy are carried out on the competitive basis from among applicants with higher education and a work experience in the system of government and public administration no less than three years.

The Academy conducts all types of methodological, scientific-research and information-analytical activities. The labor activity and professional growth of graduates is under constant observation. Recommendations are worked out to perfect the system of selection, training and distribution of specialists in government and public administration.

The Academy maintains close cooperation with research and education institutions of such countries as the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, South Korea, Singapore, Azerbaijan, as well as international organizations like the United Nations, Asian Development Bank, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, among others. Internship courses are organized in government and management bodies, higher education institutions and research institutions, including in foreign countries, for lecturers, personnel and students.

The wide-ranging innovative works, the processes of transformation and modernization in progress constitute a practical outcome of the opportunities opened up by the independence. Practical embodiment of the high economic potential of our Motherland, the modern buildings and facilities commissioned across all the regions of the country a few days ahead of the greatest and dearest holiday will facilitate the further growth in the wellbeing of the people.